Diaz gets past Frankel

By Chris Davis at ringsidePhotos by Tom Barnes/www.tomba-images.com

Former lightweight titleholder David Diaz (36-3-1) won a hard-fought majority decision against aspiring spoiler Robert Allen Frankel (27-10-1) Friday night in the ten-round main event of “Windy City Fight 15”, presented in Chicago by Dominic Pesoli’s 8 Count Productions. The boisterous crowd of over 3,500 witnessed an extraordinary display of back-and-forth, toe-to-toe action. Ultimately it was the effective inside fighting of Diaz that gave him the edge on two judges score cards (97-93 and 96-94), overriding the third judge who saw it a 95-95 draw.

In the co-feature of the evening, Polish-born and Chicago-based light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara (16-2) scored a fifth round TKO over game but outclassed Adam Jaco of Sarasota, Florida. Fonfara sent Jaco to the canvas in the third and fifth rounds, and Jaco’s utter lack of offense after the second knockdown prompted referee Celestino Ruiz to wave it off at 2:25 of the fifth.

Earlier in the evening, Alexander “The Threat” De Leon (3-2-1) of St. Joseph, Missouri lived up to his nickname by stopping previously undefeated Jaime Herrera (5-1) of Franklin Park, Illinois in a welterweight clash. After De Leon scored a knockdown early in the second, referee David Smith intervened amidst a flurry of punches to give him the victory via TKO at :48 seconds of round two.

Chicago welterweight Archour Esho (10-0) climbed off the canvas in the fourth round to rally for a dramatic fifth round TKO of Minneapolis’s Corey Michael Rodiguez (5-2-2). Esho was dropped soundly in the first minute of the fourth but survived to score a knockdown early in the fifth. A series of hard Esho lefts and rights convinced referee Gerald Scott to call the fight at 1:08 of the fifth round.

Chicago southpaw prospect Anton Novikov (18-0) earned a unanimous decision against Dashon Alan Johnson (11-4-3) in a clash of awkward styles in an eight round welterweight fight. Referee Celestino Ruiz docked two points from Novikov for holding in the seventh and eigth rounds and, though the crowd voiced their disapproval with the decision, did enough in the other rounds to win by scores of 78-73, 77-73, and 76-75.

In the evening’s opening bout, Chicago’s Aslanbek Kozaev (14-0) took a unanimous decision over eight rounds against Hector Alatorre (16-14) of Tulare, California in a six round junior welterweight bout. Kozaev’s corner did a good job making sure a cut opened up over his left eye in the third did not detract from his dominant performance of a resilient but overmatched Alatorre. Scores were 60-53 (twice) and 59-55.